GEOSATpro HDVR3500 - New DVBS2 STB - Photos and Initial Testing

[bobvick]

I can tell that it works with my Logitech Harmony 900 so it must be their data base.

Ok, thanks I haven't tried to look it up yet, I was just wondering if anyone had tried.

 

[wallyhts]

If anybody is around there 3500 do me a favor please.

Find the IP address of your unit.

Download putty or other telnet client.

Telnet into unit.
username = root
no password just hit enter

When your at the shell type "top" this will allow you to view the cpu usage. Then tune to a HD channel and post what the 2 cores usage is. Also please run xmbc and then start a video and record and post the cpu usage.

Thanks folks trying to figure something out its bothering me.

PS: if you need help to telnet in PM or call 502-614-4003

 

[. Raine]

Odd, one core looks to be at zero, inactive. The other CPU is at 35-38 % on a SD channel, jumps up to between 37 to 45% on LPB HD on 87W.

Just starting XBMC kicked the CPU up to 82% but it dropped down to 10 in a few seconds. Playing a video in XBMC is around 30%, streaming a episode of the Saint from Me TV.

Sorry, but I can't record anything because I have the 935 firmware installed right now.

 

[Martyn]

I don't see values for each core. I see a CPU load values for user apps and system apps, nic (network?) and the remainder (idle)

On most HD channels the combined user and sys values are around 40 percent most of the time. To give you an exact value, on an ABC feed right now, usr is around 18% and sys is 19% with idle at 58%

Onto XMBC ....

Jumping into the menu pushed the sys up to around 30% then after a few seconds they both drop to 4%/10%

Streaming Al Jazeera from the XMBC menu momentarily pushes both values up and the processor maxes out, but then settles to 15%/20%

I went into the media player and the values jumped to 25%/22%

Does that help? If not, I'll try again but tell me exactly what you need.

 

[Martyn]

Here's an audio problem I am having.

I noticed it on Reuters because it has the split stereo audio. With it set on stereo, everytime I come back to the channel, I only get the right audio channel. I have to go into the audio menu, switch out of stereo and back again to get stereo.

I noticed it on NBC the other day too, which is also easy to recognise because of the multiple audio channels. Perhaps it's doing it on all channels and I'm just not noticing. Anyone else have this? I might have happened with the new firmware as I didn't spot this early on.

 

[wallyhts]

Looks like the newer software is fixing the issue of maxing out CPU. I wonder if they had to disable a core to do that? Eugene any insight? When is new firmware coming out sir? PS: Eugene is on vacation with the family so in all fairness I don't expect a reply until next week.


I'm still upset that it's only a low cost dual core BOO BOO BOO.

 

[Titanium]

I want to formally apologize to SatelliteGuys members for passing on incorrect specifications for the HDVR3500. It certainly was a major mistake on my part not to verify the hardware components and specifications before posting my testing results on the forum.

While in the past I have been known to pry off heat sinks to verify components, I didn't in this case. In hind site, much of this confusion could have been avoided several weeks ago had I only popped the heat sink after the Telnet session revealed only two cores in operation. Instead, several of us passed on the Telnet findings and were informed the engineers were looking into the two cores maxing at 100%. Kudos to N6BY for taking this initiative!

I am offering everyone who purchased a HDVR3500 unit from Titanium Satellite:
1. Return the unit for a full refund and I will provide the return shipping label.

2. Keep the unit and receive a refund of $35.

3. Keep the unit and receive an in-store credit of $40.

When it just came to my attention that the product was not delivered as advertised, I wanted to make every effort to make sure that not only our customers are happy with the products that we select to resell, but to reach out to those of you that may have been influenced by my reviews and testing.

I realize that many of you may have purchased the unit because it was promoted as a quad core 3788m chipset and may have not made the purchase had you known it was a dual core 3712 processor.

I apologize for this unfortunate incident and any inconvenience that it caused! I will learn from this incident and more carefully select products and verify specifications before posting and advertising!

Yes, the HDVR3500 has the potential to be a nice receiver and it does ACM which no other STB currently supports. I don't feel that dual/quad/octo makes difference with DVBS S2 h.264 reception, but it does make a difference when running multiple processes and apps.

 

[wallyhts]

I'm sorry to folks bad communication.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I still think its a great receiver. I have NEVER seen HD quality out of a FTA receiver like this before!

 

[. Raine]

Even though the HDVR3500 is a dual core instead of quad and mine has only 16 GB internal storage instead of 64 GB, I wouldn't want to return it. I really like this receiver a lot, so far.

Navigating through channels is real simple, push OK, up/down, left/right, to whatever channel you want and then hit Ok again, done. Real easy. This is the first receiver I've had that my wife and daughter can use without having to ask me any questions and they're not afraid that they may mess things up by hitting a wrong button.

The Positioner Setting menu is great, with the step move and continuous move options and store position option right below them, I like that a lot. Very good control over sat settings/functions in this receiver. As a receiver, it's the best one I've owned.

As a streaming device though, it pretty much falls flat on it's face there, my Pi2 is way better than the HDVR3500. The XBMC on the HDVR3500 is too crippled and slow to be of any real use to me and IPTV nearly maxes out the cpu on mine at 96% and chokes, neither work very well for me. But...that may change with future firmware updates and as a receiver, it's definitely my favorite of the ones I own.

 

[Bongu]

Yet again, an AWESOME customer service undertaking by Titanium! Way to go! You will definitely get more sales from me when I am in the market.

 

[. Raine]

I still think its a great receiver. I have NEVER seen HD quality out of a FTA receiver like this before!

Yes, the picture is great!

 

[Gfox]

When playing back a recording if I push the UP and DOWN arrows on the remote/2nd row up from the bottom I lose any control over the unit with the remote and I have to power off from the rear power switch.I assume these are speed+ and speed - I am not sure. It is as if the remote is dead even though the recording continues to play. Has anyone else encountered this problem? If so I wonder if it is being addressed in the next firmware revision? I have just learned for the moment "hands off" of those 2 buttons.

 

[wallyhts]

I just reported that gfox is having this issue. Just in case the post gets overlooked

I will try to replicated as well.

 

[Gfox]

Thanks wallyhts!

And while I am here I might as well chime in about my opinion of the HDVR 3500 so far as well. The more that I use it and get familiar with it the more and more I like it. Yes, good HD video and strong signals as well. I do hope when it all shakes out that the CPU can do the job required by all of the features of the unit. I have been reading this message thread and the improvement requests by users as well as the promises to fix bugs by factory representatives. I am excited about all that I have been reading and if it all comes about it will even make the unit better. I am not a Power User or a die hard fta hobbiest so as far as the CPU size and type is concerned as long as the unit performs smooth and is adequate for the satellite viewing, IPTV, xbmc, dvr, and other features that I bought the box for then I am happy with whatever CPU is inside. I am keeping my hopes up that we will get a new firmware version soon that will make us all smile.

 

[N6BY]

I have decided that I don't want to return my HDVR3500. I thought I was getting a quad-core with plenty of RAM so I could use it for both FTA and IPTV. But I didn't expect it to receive ACM when I first tried it -- a very pleasant surprise! I also like the fast blind scan. Since I do a lot of KU feed hunting with my BirdView, the blind scan speed really helps. In addition, the fast forward and rewind functions are the best that I have seen in any FTA receiver.

From the CPU usage tests reported previously here, it doesn't seem like the CPU-intensive portions of the firmware are optimized for multiple cores. Portions of the code where it spends most of its time need to be rewritten to be multi-threaded. This receiver would really benefit from that.

When playing back a recording if I push the UP and DOWN arrows on the remote/2nd row up from the bottom I lose any control over the unit with the remote and I have to power off from the rear power switch.I assume these are speed+ and speed - I am not sure....

I just tried the UP and DOWN arrows here and it started playing the previous or next recording in my list. Maybe there is a corrupt recording left over from when you had the newest build?

 

[jaytee4320]

Yet again, an AWESOME customer service undertaking by Titanium! Way to go! You will definitely get more sales from me when I am in the market.

I'll second that...great integrity from Titanium.
There is a strange issue with my 3500; the channel display randomly turn off and the green light and colon flash every 3 seconds until I change the channel, then it displays fine for 5 - 20 ? minutes till it goes off again.
Wondering if anyone else noticed this. Tnx

 

[skysurfer]

I am offering everyone who purchased a HDVR3500 unit from Titanium Satellite:
(...)

I pulled the trigger on a HDVR3500 receiver last week because of Titanium who I recognized on Amazon as being one who is very helpful to FTA'ers here, the receiver's ACM feature and thinking there are more audio/video out there or the music channels won't be the only ACM video/audio service as time goes on, the not guaranteed but likely features that may be added to the receiver after the firmware gets stabilized, and assuming that the receiver being newer would be faster than any of the other two STB's that I've had a year or two that couldn't handle a HD sports feed I tried to watch in July but the video was all blocky/jerky despite a super strong signal strength. I still don't know if it was encoder/receiver incompatiblity like what you usually see happen or if the HD feed needed more processing power than what my older STB's had..

Receiver came, Titanium answered a Q I had fairly early off the bat since I did something stupid or possibly encountered a bug while learning the processes of this receiver (and the suggestion of back panel master switch off/on worked to get my receiver out of its funk without doing a master reset) and then over the weekend he emailed out of the blue to apologize about the specs being wrong and offered the three options, one of which I took. Certainly makes the purchasing decision feel better that the dealer I chose to buy from decided to take the initiative to offer a remedy for the specs not being as "advertised".

I'll be posting more possible bugs or other comments when I have more time to get caught up with this thread in case my possible bug or comment has been addressed.

 

[wallyhts]

They better fix the IPTV issue maxing out the 2 cores. The price folks are paying we better get a quality software build this is a high dollar box. I hope in 2 months we are all not saying great for sat worthless for xmbc. I'm sure Eugene can get this maxing out issue fixed "I hope"

 

[Gfox]

I just tried the UP and DOWN arrows here and it started playing the previous or next recording in my list. Maybe there is a corrupt recording left over from when you had the newest build?[/QUOTE]

I did not know what the function of the UP and DOWN buttons on the DVR remote control buttons did because mine never worked. The freezing of the unit started right out of the box before I ever tried the 935 firmware with MUTE capabilities but that would not record. Then I reverted back to the original firmware and the freezing up issue was still there. I guess the DVR does not have a SLOW feature which many DVRs do have. That is what I guessed that the UP and DOWN arrows might be for but I see that I was wrong. I will try deleting all of the recordings in my list and will try again to see if my freezing up issue goes away.